Hermetically sealed food package with tamper resistant closure



' May 7,1963 R E GRAHAM 3,088,830

HERME'IICALLY'SEALED FOOD PACKAGE WITH TAMPER RESISTANT ,cLosuRE Filed Oct. 20/1959 //3 /0LJ T- 1* THIN-I- I- 4 AZ INVENTOR.

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United States Patent 3,088,830 HERWETICALLY SEALED FOOD PACKAGE WITH TAMPER RESISTANT CLOSURE Robert E. Graham, Toledo, Ohio, assignor to Owens- Illinois Glass Company, a corporation of Ohio Filed Oct. 20, 1959, Ser. No. 847,485 1 Claim. (Cl. 99-171) My invention relates to containers for food and the like commodities and more particularly to glass jars which are filled and hermetically sealed by means of closure caps of the screw-threaded, lug or snap-on type.

It is most important that food containers remain hermetically sealed from the time of filling and closing under sterile conditions until they reach the ultimate consumer who is about to or is going to use the contents. Otherwise, as is readily understood, sterility and suitability of the food, etc., for human consumption cannot be assured. This is particularly important and critical in the field of baby foods. Contributing to the utter defeat of efforts to attain this objective is the current practice on the part of many shoppers to remove closure caps from food containing jars in the retail stores, sample or smell the contents, reapply the closure caps and too often return such already opened and of necessity no longer sterile packages to the store shelves for purchase 'by another customer. It is most difiicult to curb this practice and practically impossible to do so 100%.

An object of my invention is the provision of simple, completely reliable means, readily useable in commercial practice, which will function as a tell-tale to visibly indicate whether a jar, or such container, has been tampered with and/or subjected to unauthorized breaking of the original hermetic seal.

A further object is the provision of a wrap-around paper label, bonded in customary fashion to a container body and having an upward extension freely encompassing such an area of the attaching skirt of a removable closure cap that readily visible surface scuffing, distortion or mutilation of a portion of the label is unavoidable incident to the removal of, or serious attempts to remove, the closure cap.

Another object of my invention is the provision of a paper band or collar encompassing contiguous areas of a jar or the like product-filled container and the attaching skirt of a closure cap with the band bonded only to the container.

I am aware of others efforts, such as revealed in Abrams et a1. Patent No. 2,223,017 to attain the important objective of my invention. These efforts, however, have been unsuccessful, largely because, as in the Abrams et a1. patent, the strips are bonded tightly both to the container and closure cap. As a consequence, the strip ordinarily is severed by means of a knife or such instrument along the parting line between the cap skirt and container or along this same line incident to unscrewing of the closure cap. In either event, the severance is quite clean and takes place along a relatively narrow well defined line which is none too visible. Accordingly, the closure cap may be reapplied and unauthorized opening of the package too frequently goes undetected. My invention, however, is such that if adequate pressure is applied to remove the closure cap, that pressure will also, of necessity, wrinkle, mutilate or in some fashion impart an abnormal appearance to that portion of the paper in the closure cap zone to clearly visibly indicate that someone has opened or attempted to open the package.

Other objects will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

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In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a sealed jar with a portion of the upwardly extended label broken away to show its relationship to the attaching skirt of the closure cap.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional elevational view showing on an enlarged scale that portion illustrated in section in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing the use of a narrow paper band or collar encircling the attaching skirt of the closure cap and an adjacent portion of the jar, such being intended for use where the body label or decoration constitutes an integral part of the container as differentiated from a removable paper label.

In FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, I have illustrated one form of my invention in which it is an integral part of a conventional wrap-around paper label 10 adhesively bonded to the body 11 of a jar 12 or the like receptacle in more or less conventional fashion. Such a jar may, after filling, be sealed hermetically by means of a closure cap 13 including a depending attaching skirt 14 which conventionally is telescoped over a mouth forming wall 15 at the upper end of the jar. Any suitable attaching means may be utilized to removably secure the closure cap to the jar and, as shown in FIG. 3, may be in the form of lugs 16 provided on the exterior of the jar neck and engageable with mating threads or projections (not shown) on the interior of the closure cap skirt 14.

Where a paper wrap-around label is employed, it is common practice to roll the jar or such receptacle over an adhesive applicator which applies a film 17 of bonding material to the body. Thereafter, the receptacle rolls over a label and by this procedure the label becomes bonded to the jar and extends over its entire circumference. My invention provides simply for increasing the width of the label so that there is an upwardly extending portion 10a which encompasses a substantial part of the closure cap Skirt 14 but is unbonded thereto. This extension of the label covers enough of the closure cap skirt to preclude sufficiently effective manual grasping of the cap to permit its removal without concurrently therewith wrinkling or mutilating the extended portion 10a to such degree as to present visible evidence that the closure cap has been removed or in any event an attempt has been made in that direction. It is apparent that one attempting to remove and/ or succeeding in removing and replacing a closure cap from a package incorporating my invention cannot avoid causing such extensive mutilation of the free unbonded portion of the label as will provide clear visible evidence of tampering. As I have pointed out heretofore, it is important that there be no bond between the closure cap attaching skirt and the extended portion of the label. Otherwise, one might easily sever the band along the lower margin of the attaching skirt, remove and reapply the closure cap with little likelihood that such tampering would ever be detected. If preferred, there may be a line of weakness at the juncture of the label proper and extended portion. This may be in the form of a plurality of perforations 10b. Twisting of the closure cap and with it the paper strip overlying the cap skirt will tear the strip at the weakened line and clearly indicate tampering.

In a modified form of my invention (FIG. 4), which is intended for use where the label is printed directly upon the jar 12a, a paper band 18 or a band formed of some equivalent material encircles contiguous areas of the jar and closure cap 13a. Adhesive 19 is applied to a portion of the jar body and functions to securely bond the lower portion of the paper band or collar to the jar. Here again those portions of the band which 3 encircle the closure cap skirt 14a are unbonded to the latter for the reasons explained above in connection with that form of my invention shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

Modifications may be resorted to Within the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

I claim. A hermetically sealed container consisting of a receptacle having a body portion formed with a mouthdefining wall, a food item enclosed therein, a skirted screw-threaded closure cap telescoped over and remov- 10 ably secured to the mouth-defining wall to hermetically seal the receptacle, a readily multilatable paper band encircling contiguous areas of the body and closure cap skirt and means adhesively bonding the band to the re ceptacle only, said band extending axially over the 010- 15 sure cap skirt a substantial degree whereby to preclude sufliciently efiective manual grasping of the closure cap to remove same from the receptacle independently of and Without visibly mutilating the band.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 958,887 Parmele May 24, 1910 1,006,087 Hertzberg Oct. 17, 1911 1,908,245 Hogg May 9, 1933 1,942,212 Haseltine Jan. 2, 1934 2,066,708 Young Jan. 5, 1937 2,367,317 Thomas Jan. 16, 1945 2,888,159 Fields May 26, 1959 

